With the advent of search functions across distributed computing networks, such as the Internet, a variety of searchable assets, for example, web pages, websites, and associated content, are available to searching users. Providers of such content and providers of search mechanisms, such as Internet browsing applications, often desire user feedback on how acceptable or useful a given web asset is in relation to an associated search query. For example, a developer of a web browsing application may desire user feedback on the acceptability and quality of search results provided in response to associated search queries so that the developer may improve the search functionality of the web browsing application. Prior systems have relied on explicit feedback from searching users, but unfortunately, a very small number of users typically respond to requests for explicit feedback, and thus, the small quantity of feedback responses may cause the reliability of such feedback to be suspect. Prior systems have also relied on click-through information, including information on whether a user actually selects a given search result and/or selects additional items in a given search result, but whether a user selects a given search result and any additional items in a given search result may not be indicative of satisfaction with the selected search result.
In addition when users browse to a particular web asset for information or assistance on a given topic, the users often find part of the information they seek in one document, but they have to do additional browsing or searching to find other pieces of needed information in other web assets. Unfortunately, this typically results in users being required to conduct a number of searches to find all needed information, often having to re-browse to web assets they have previously located and dismissed.
It is with respect to these and other considerations that the present invention has been made.